The Thanks System was requested by users and we installed it. Since then, a few people who seem to believe that simply because they don't like a feature (or that the feature is susceptible to abuse) it should not be allowed.

I disagree. Almost every feature on this site can be abused by the wrong person, or someone with malicious intent. You can spam threads, posts, pictures, PM's, etc. Obviously most of the regulars here see that this is wrong and use the features and tools as they were intended. Those that do not usually find themselves banned.

Should the thanks system be any different? When used properly it is a valuable tool. You can search for posts by a certain user that other people have thanked him for... when this system is used properly those posts are generally going to be the ones with the most helpful information in them.

When abused, the system becomes worthless.

We are asking you to use the system as it is intended. If you don't like the system, don't use it... don't thank people for worthless posts. Don't thank people just to spam it up. You are ruining a feature for eveyrone else on the site that does use it and enjoy it.

In the future, when we see rampant "thanks" being distributed or requested, we will nuke all the thanks that you have. There is no reason to try and bring down this feature simply because you personally don't like it. Please consider other people's needs and wants and don't put yourself before them. Respect the site and the goals we have here to build a friendly and helpful place... we'll all be better off for it.

You can search for posts by a certain user that other people have thanked him for...

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How?

I see the new "Find All Thanked Posts" option in the search menu, but that gives you ALL thanked posts. How do you narrow that down to only those made by one member?

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The helpful part is to find all the posts by a person that other users have thanked them for. For example, I've been thanked twice... if I happen to make a helpful post to another user, they may say... "Hrmmmm this guy has great info, I wonder what other posts he's made that other people found really helpful" and they can search for that. It beats searching all my posts... some might be off-topic, or not so great... so hopefully the "Find all thanked posts by ekool" narrows down that search for them and speeds up finding whatever they are looking for.